Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder
by Aylatha
Summary: A simple request made by his youngest daughter gets a merchant into a sticky situation - displeased with his actions, the hideous lord of a cursed castle demands his life as payment. The merchant pleads for mercy - and the lord agrees to spare his life if he gives him his daughter instead... (feudal era, different setting)


**A/N: Hey everyone, I'm actually still alive and kicking ^^ welcome to my new story, I hope you'll enjoy it.**

**A short while ago, I read a fanfic called "The Beast", an adaption of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast". While I didn't like everything about the story, it was one of those that got me thinking. And so I thought, why not write my own version of this fairy tale?**

**Once the idea had been born, I just had to do it. However, my story will be a mixture of the Disney version and the "original" fairy tale I heard as a kid, so a couple of things will be different. For example, I swapped the rose with a different flower, since I don't know if they had roses in feudal Japan. Also, in accordance with the fairy tale, the father is a merchant and has three daughters.**

**The first chapter is actually a prologue, that's why it's so short. I just call it Chapter 1 so I won't confuse the numbers. Later chapters will be longer (I think). As for updates - suffice to say that they will be irregular, depending on how much time and motivation I have.**

**To those of you who are reading "The Flower of the West": I will not abandon this story, I'm just stuck with a terrible writer's block, which was only furthered by a not-so-nice review I received from a guest. Which is why I will disable guest reviews. But I will not be discouraged, and as soon as I can motivate myself, I will continue writing this story.**

**And that's it for today. Enjoy!**

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**The Curse**

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A long, long time ago, there lived a powerful lord, a youkai of unparalleled strength. He was mated to a beautiful female who bore him a son, his heir. However, defying his tribe's traditions, he took another mate, a human, who bore him another son. War broke out soon after, and the lord fell while trying to protect his lands, and his family.

The prince then took over the rule of the Western Lands, and, since duty dictated it, cared for his brother and the human – though he never had much love for them. His mother left court to find her own solace, and wasn't seen since.

The young lord took great pride in the fact that he was the son of the most powerful demon to ever walk this earth. He was also a fearsome warrior, a skilled strategist and a great leader. While he never despised anyone for their heritage or race in particular, he simply saw the rest of the world as beneath himself. He grew distant and cold, disdainful of others. His pride only grew, and some people jokingly said that his ego was bigger than his true form (whenever he was very, very far away, that is). For the lord was also vengeful, and could hold grudges for a very long time. Crossing him wasn't something anyone should do, unless he had a deathwish. While he was by no means cruel or unjust, the word "mercy" was not part of his vocabulary.

One day it came to pass that his men brought to him a woman dressed in rags, who had come to seek his aid. However, the lord, not wishing to concern himself with such a lowly creature, turned her away with a disgusted sneer.

Alas, when the guards were about to remove her from his presence, she cast off her worn cloak and revealed herself to be a human – a miko. While no longer young, she was handsome, and power radiated from her person. Before the lord had time to recover, the miko spoke, and sealed his fate.

She introduced herself as Midoriko, a servant of the gods. Seeing he completely lacked any compassion, she cursed him and his household, so that he might learn – the kami would give him this one last chance. The curse would reveal the ugliness inside, and bind him to his castle. The only way to break the curse would be for him to learn compassion, and to find someone he loved – and someone who would love him, despite his looks and character. However, his time was limited – if he failed, he would forever be a beast, but his retainers would die. He would be alone, forever, for he would not be given another chance at redemption.

After completing the curse, the miko left, dropping a seed into a soft patch of soil in the garden.

The lord at first thought little of the curse – he had felt her power, but he doubted that a mere human could do something like this to him – and all of his castle's inhabitants. However, he soon found out that he had been wrong to dismiss her so easily, for her words proved true – the lord was indeed cursed, and so he began searching for a way to lift the curse. He sent out his men to retrieve the miko, but it seemed that she had vanished – and, since she was mortal, the lord thought it might be possible that she would die before she could be found. Also, he had a feeling that he would be unable to make her revoke the curse. So, he set about to do what she had instructed him to do – find someone who would love him. It seemed an easy enough task, at first.

To his chagrin, he soon found that it wasn't. Many a demoness was disgusted by his looks, and some feared he would pass them on to their pups, believing his disfigurement to be a natural one instead of the result of a curse; others were intimidated and turned away by his attitude. It certainly didn't help that he had terribly high standards he expected his mate to meet, and so his search for true love proved fruitless. Also, since he wasn't able to leave, he could not search or pursue, and people didn't feel like visiting a palace that had been cursed.

His servants soon told him of rumours the humans would tell, of a hideous beast that lived in the castle and devoured anyone foolish enough to venture there. As a result, no-one dared go near it, and the western palace was swallowed in darkness, and despair.

His brother's mother died soon after the incident of an illness the youkai were not familiar with, and after that, the darkness seemed to grow even more. The lord still desperately searched for a way to rid himself of the curse, but after more than a century had passed, he slowly began to lose hope, becoming even colder and more bitter than before.

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**Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or any of the characters therein. The cover image was created on Doll Divine and can also be found on my deviantART-page.**


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